A firm whose name once circulated around the globe for a famous and perhaps apocryphal email chain, Norton Rose is now making headlines for all the right reasons.

Against the backdrop of a new quarterly report touting a dramatic rise in law firm mergers in the U.S. market — and four months after completing a tie-up with Montreal-based Ogilvy Renault — the rapidly expanding Norton Rose is growing again, this time by joining forces with 250-lawyer Macleod Dixon.